Opposite directions

I realised yesterday that I haven't left much time to get my camera serviced and cleaned before a forthcoming trip where I really want to be able to rely on it. So I was waiting outside London Camera Exchange in Oxford before they opened this morning. Olympus-owners - did you know that our cameras are sent to Portugal for servicing and the process takes well over two weeks? The LCE person inspected my camera, cleaned what they could, and told me (very carefully worded!) that there seemed to be no reason for it to let me down soon.

Then a dash for the bus to meet friends for lunch in London. We - all strong, activist feminists - did our MA course in Rights in Education together over 40 years ago and enjoyed robust discussions on challenging topics. But the second wave/third wave feminism split in the wider world is now replicated in our group with just me on the pro-trans side. The strongest member of our group on the 'woman' means assigned female at birth on the basis of genitalia side says that in order not to damage old friendships, we will not discuss it. Nonetheless, in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling (very much in tune with our 'build walls not bridges' times), I went prepared with statistics from the 2021 census and also information about trans suicide attempts and deaths. Not required. We discussed ailments, grandchildren and holidays. Quite like being at the hairdressers.

So I'll tell you instead:
In the 2021 England and Wales census question, 'Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?'

Yes  93.5% (over 45 million people)
No - trans man   0.1% (48,000)
No - trans woman 0.1% (48,000)
No - non-binary  0.06% (30,000)
No - unspecified 0.04% (18,000)
Did not answer 6%

What I'd really like to know from my friends is how 48,000 beleaguered, not very powerful trans women can be such a threat to 23 million cis women. Seriously, how?

Suicide